Getting Around Singapore With A Handy. Smartphone

When we arrived at our hotel in Singapore, amongst all the amazing features our suite had one of them was a smartphone perched on a docking station. I have never seen one in any other hotel I have been to whether it was higher end or not. What a great idea for hotel guests to use! Absolutely free to use for when you leave the hotel, whether you want to use maps to get around or to simply make phone calls to local or international numbers. This smartphone has so many amazing features for you to use to get the most out of your stay.

When I had read up about this ingenious idea it is only available currently in Singapore in a very large chain of hotels. The smartphone loan service by Tink Labs, called Handy, has been used by more than 10 million visitors globally. In Singapore, the device is free for guests of more than 22,000 hotel rooms in partner hotels, including the Carlton City Hotel. It was introduced in January 2015 when Tink Labs had noticed a surge of customer satisfaction within airports and transit hubs for a rental fee with this smartphone service. They decided to release it to many hotel chains providing guests various different services. This includes free international and local calls, direction services featuring Google Maps. It also includes food and activity recommendations as well as booking tickets at discounted prices.

We took our device out to help us get around the city without the need for masses of paper maps. It was so much easier to get a real time view of our location and how to get to a specific location without having to keep stopping to decipher a paper map and work out where we need to go. It always sucks when your mobile phone provider doesn’t give you coverage in a certain country without it costing you a fortune so it is always great if you have something to help you in that respect.

10AMAZING FEATURES ON HANDY’S SMARTPHONE:

Runs on 4G – so no need to connect to the WiFi when you are out and about.

Full use of the camera – including photos and videos.

Google Maps and other location tracking services.

Social Media apps including Facebook and Twitter for updating.

Free International and Local calls.

Free messaging service using WeChat (a bit like WhatsApp).

Your hotel’s concierge on speed dial in case anything happens.

Ticket booking services which include discounted ticket prices to popular tourist activities and excursions.

Food, drink and things to do recommendations.

It is absolutely FREE!

I really wish all hotels across the world would do this! Especially if you are a tourist from another country. How amazing would it be for the travel industry to progress in this way?!